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TSC Chairperson Position Officially Advertised, Deadline Set At March 19

The race to recruit a substantive TSC chairperson is on after a President Uhuru-appointed selection panel announced that applications for the post is now open for interested and qualified individuals.

Any successful applicant shall replace Lydia Nzomo whose term expired in November, 2020.

Dr. Nzomo was the first chairperson to ever be recruited competitively since the new constitution was promulgated in 2010.

The panel shall also hire one commissioner for Rift Valley after the position went unfilled last year.

President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed Commissioners, Mbage Njuguna Ng’ang’a, and Leila Abdi Ali to represent Central and North Eastern Regions respectively.

The recruitment followed the retirement of commissioners Salome Gichura (Central), Cleophas Tirop (Rift Valley) and Saadia Abdi (North Eastern) in 2019 after the six-year terms ended.

The selection panel nominated Margaret Lesuuda and Mary Rotich from Rift Valley as Mr. Tirop’s replacement.

The process of recruitment focused on regional and gender balance. Persons with disability were also encouraged to apply for the jobs.

Usually, regions that siting Commissioners have already represented score fewer points in the interview process.

However, it is not clear if this will be the case as five commissioners are expected to leave office at the end of this month.

Commissioners Beatrice Adu, Mbarak Twahir, Kinoti Imanyara, Albert Ekirapa and Tache Gollo will leave office on March 19.

Exits of these Commissioners will hasten the motion to reconstitute a selection panel as per Section 8(13) of the TSC Act, which states that: “The panel shall stand dissolved upon the appointment of the Chairperson and members.”

This means that the mandate of the current selection panel that Thoma Koyier chairs will be recruiting one member and the chairperson.

The panel consists of Mary Gaturu who represents the Ministry of Education, Charles Mutinda who represents the Attorney General’s Office, Margarte Lilan Geno who represents the Federation of Kenya Employers and Njoki Kahiga who represents the Public Service.

Other panellists are Richard Kibagendi and Hellen Hazel Miseda who represents the registered teachers’ trade unions, Stanley Waudo who is an educationist and Eva Naputuni Nyoike who represents the Kenya Private Schools Association.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary – General Wilson Sossion said that the present panel should be allowed to advertise vacancies for those five Commissioners whose term expires in just two week from now.

“There is no need to constituting another panel to recruit the five commissioners. This one can still do the job,” said Wilson Sossion.

Mr. Koyier said that in a paid-up advertisement, candidates for the position of chairperson must have a degree from a recognized university in Kenya.

Besides, the candidates must have knowledge and experience of at least 10 years in education, governance and management or law.

The position is not open for applications from Members of Parliament or County Assemblies or anybody who is serving any governing body, local authority or political party.

Candidates locked out of the top job are candidates who have misued or abused public offices before or in any way contravened Chapter Six of the Kenyan Constitution.

“Applications must reach the panel secretariat on or before March 19 at 5 pm Kenyan time,” read the communication.

Koyier assured Kenyans that the team will do their job according to the law and within the stipulated time.

The call for applications came one day after the panel’s inauguration. Public Service Commission vice chairperson Charity Kisotu oversaw the exercise.

Ms Kisotu implored panel members to be diligent in their work. She said that they were “carefully selected and clearly represent diverse interests in the education sector”.

“I have no doubt that you are fully aware of how critical the education sector is in this country. This is rightly demonstrated by the representation that constitutes this selection panel,” said Ms. Kisotu.

The vice chairperson stressed that the panel had been appointed at a crucial time when the government was rolling out curriculum reforms in the education sector. Therefore there was need for the exercise to be done and completed as soon as possible.

Kennedy Kihara who represented the Head of Public Service urged the panel to follow the law strictly while carrying out the exercise and present the best nominees to the appointing authority.

“The government is undergoing a lot of transformation and we must ensure and facilitate public participation in everything we do,” said Mr. Kihara.

Public Secretary Principal Secretary Mary Kimonye who represented the Public Service was also present. And Gender Cabinet Secretary Margaret Kobia.

“The integrity of the process is what you want to emphasize. The work you are doing ought to be taken with humility, commitment, honesty and objectivity so that the outcome will be acceptance to all,” said Ms. Kimonye.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia said that they were expecting to get the best chairperson and member from the selection process.

Section 8(4) of the TSC Act stipulates that the chairperson of the selection panel convene the first meeting within seven days of appointment.

“The selection panel shall, within seven days of convening, invite applications from persons who qualify for nomination and appointment as chairperson or member of the commission by advertisement in at least two daily newspapers of national circulation.”

Therefore, within 14 days after the first meeting, the panel will call for applications from interested candidates.

And within five days after receiving the applications, the panel shall shortlist and interview the applicants.

After the interviews, the panel will then forward the names of the successful applicants to President Kenyatta who in a space of seven days of receiving the names, will forward them to the National Assembly to be approved or rejected.

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Education Cabinet Secretary for Education Prof Magoha announced that Primary and Secondary schools are set to get Sh. 15 Billion Capitation this week.

The CS said that the money will cover the balances that heads of schools said were a source of financial problems that could derail the administration of national examinations.

We shall release the money next week to schools and therefore no one should try to cause panic or anxiety,” said Prof Magoha on Thursday.

The announcement is great news to the 7,000 secondary school heads who gave an indication in the last week that they may not be able to adequately prepare for the administration of the KCPE and KCSE examinations if the funds are not released.

Earlier this year when schools fully reopened, the Ministry of Education released Sh 4.6 Billion to fund primary schools and another Sh. 14.6 Billion to fund secondary schools.

School heads accused the government of withholding huge sums of money, saying that this could lead to schools running into more financial trouble.

However, the Ministry, said that the money released was only 25 percent of the total amount of money that should be sent to schools in the First term.

The model of free education of the government is spread in a 50:30:20 ratio. This means that half of the money is sent during the first term, with 30 percent in the second term and 20 percent sent to schools in the Third term.

School managers said that the Government’s delay in releasing the capitation balance was frustrating the purchase of chemicals for practicals and apparatus for science subjects.

Kenya Secondary School Heads Association Chairperson Kahi Indimuli said that any further delays would cause thousands of Form Four candidates to fail to sit for their examinations.

“As we speak, schools do not have money. The government promised to release the final tranche of 25 percent by the end of February,” Indimuli said in the past week.

Indimuli was positively receptive to the announcement and hoped that the funds would be wired without failure.

He said that preparations for Science subjects, i.e. Biology, Physics, and Chemistry papers may not be adequate if the government does not release the funds in time.

Indimuli said that some schools do not even have the critical apparatus required during the examinations. Some on the other hand may need the money to do minor repairs in their laboratories with examinations looming.

1,088,986 candidates will sit KCPE for their examinations from March 22 to 24 while another 699,745 candidates will for the KCSE examinations that will start on March 25.

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